It Girl and Top Girl, CrowdStar certainly knows what it's doing when it comes to more casual social games. But Wasteland Empires is something totally different. Aimed at the burgeoning mid-core demographic on Facebook, the game puts you in control of a fledgling settlement in the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic world. You'll be carving out">

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Carve out a life in a post-apocalyptic world in Wasteland Empires

With games like It Girl and Top Girl, CrowdStar certainly knows what it’s doing when it comes to more casual social games. But Wasteland Empires is something totally different. Aimed at the burgeoning mid-core demographic on Facebook, the game puts you in control of a fledgling settlement in the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic world. You’ll be carving out a life in a world full of death, not only by building up a suitable colony, but by defending yourself in player versus player combat.

Life is hard in Wasteland Empires.

At the outset of the game a group of nomads stumble upon an oasis: a source of water hidden amongst the rubble. And so they decide to stop their roaming ways and start a colony. This portion of the game is much like a city building strategy game. You’ll need to build shelters for your colonists, farms to produce food, and additional wells to expand your domain. Doing so will make your colony more attractive to other nomads, who will join forces with you, increasing your population.

As is the way with life in a post apocalyptic world, you’ll need to scavenge to survive. Scavenging the rubble around you, which includes everything from rocks and shrubs to downed airplanes, will not only clear space for you to build on, but also help you gather the recources necessary to do just about anything in the game. You’ll have a city hall where you can research (or, as the developers put it, “re-learn”) new technologies, allowing you to unlock additional content. For example, you can’t upgrade your wells until you learn deep well drilling, just like you can’t upgrade a house until you know how to weld scrap.

There’s also a light story in the game, which is doled out across a number of chapters, each of which consists of a number of missions. You’ll receive these from various characters in short snippets of text. And though it’s not available yet, you’ll also learn more about the world and story by exploring in the future. If you play right now, for example, you’ll be able to see a blinking light with the words “coming soon.” What, exactly, could it be?

Of course, in a dangerous world such as this, you’ll also need to defend yourself against other colonies. You can set-up defensive buildings to ward off incoming attacks and train troops so that you can attack yourself. The combat works much like in a game like Edgeworld, though it’s slightly more in-depth in Wasteland Empires. You can attack both computer controlled colonies and real players, and you’ll be able to select from your available units before guiding them in battle. This amounts to simply clicking on whatever building you want to attack, and you have a limited amount of time to cause as much damage as possible. Successfully attacking a city earns you resources and all kinds of other rewards.

Though it seems quite similar to the recent wave of strategy games from developers like Kabam, Wasteland Empires feel somewhat unique, thanks in large part to its setting. The process of building a thriving community in a world of rubble and dust is very satisfying, and a nice change of pace from the more standard style of city building strategy games.